What initially stood out to me about this framework was its core goal of understanding the value of sustainability as well as how the concept of what is sustainable is constantly evolving. This model is simple and clear, creating an overarching mindset to evaluate the social, environmental and financial issues faced by businesses. While it doesn’t necessarily describe a process, I don’t believe its detrimental as it then allows companies to create a model that works best for them.
Natural Capitalism not only protects the environment, but it also improves the profits of companies, keeping them competitive and ensuring their sustainability for the future. This framework doesn’t re-invent the wheel, it just offers simple changes in the way one runs their business that could make their resources more productive. Natural capitalism strives to increase the efficiency of natural resources promoting fresh designs for processes as well as demonstrating how replacing old industrial technologies could have major savings in the long run.
One of the simplest ways for companies to save money is though saving electricity. There are many off-the-shelf improvements that one could do to their building structure that could cut energy consumption by over half. Not only would this reduce the cost of running an office, but it would increase the productivity of the people working there as they would be more comfortable and less fatigued by the noise that older equipment makes.
Another easy savings idea for an office would be eliminating the paper that’s unwanted/unneeded. If a company could eliminate mailing lists (most of which are automated already) as well as paper copies of memos (which are usually thrown away), they could both increase labor productivity (because someone has to make and distribute them) as well as decrease costs of office supplies. These seemingly small savings are multiplied by the savings further upstream as there will be a less need for paper products requiring fewer trees to be harvested from the forest.
Natural capitalism promotes companies to reinvest in themselves and increase their productivity, which will ultimately result in savings as well as a more sustainable process for future generations.